Jesus told His disciples “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God believe also in Me.  In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.  If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that were I am, there you may be also.”  John 14:1-3.  In these few verses from Revelation 21, we will get a glimmer of “My Father’s House.”

 Vs 9    One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 

 This is the first mention of angels in 1000 years.  The last we heard of the angels was during the bowl judgments which ushered in the millennium reign of Christ.  Not that they are absent during the millennium, it’s just that this is the first reference back to them.  This angel or one like him issued the destruction of Babylon and now we see him introduce John to a different city.  This is the city of God.    The city is called the bride but a city is not buildings or streets, but the occupants.  They are the ones who make up the city.  Dallas is its people.  New York is its people.  Boston is its people – remember “Boston Strong” during the terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon.  The redeemed are the bride of Christ and they populate the city.  We are also called the wife in that the marriage of the Lamb has taken place.  What a wondrous note to know that throughout all eternity we will be called His bride.  Always fresh, always new and vibrant.

 Vs 10  And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

 John was on the island of Patmos during the Revelation but at this point he is transported into heaven just as Paul was when he entered the third heaven.  First heaven is the sky above, second heaven is stellar space, and third heaven is the place where God abodes.  He is taken to a place where he sees the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven.  It is coming from heaven because it is a city whose architect and builder is God.  He is seeing the city Abraham was told of.  This city is heavenly built and designed by the Master Himself.  It is His city and will be the capital of the new heaven and new earth.  Hebrews 12:22-24 says:  “here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.”  That is God’s city.

 Vs 11  It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

 The glory of God is the display of His attributes.  All of His character on display which is why we cannot see the glory of God in its fullness with our mortal eyes.  It would kill us.  Moses saw the glory as it departed but could not look on full faced.  This city will be filled with the glory of God.  It is made by Him for Him.  It is like a highest quality diamond.  Diamonds reflect and refract light in a myriad of colors and so will this city.  We will be fashioned in a body for such a place as that.

 Vs 12  It had a great, high wall with twelve gates and with twelve angels at the gates.  On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.

Vs 13  There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west.

Vs 14  The wall of the city had twelve foundations and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

 The city is laid out like a cube.  It had three gates on each side.  Above each gate was the name of one of the tribes of Israel, below each gate it had the name of one of the apostles on its foundation.  God is the God of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.  All of His own come to Him and we are welcomed at the gate.  An angel guards each gate.  They are the gatekeepers not that there will be any enemies for they have all been dealt with but it will be a constant reminder to us for the protection God gives us.

 Vs 15  The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls.

 The angel with John measures the city.  This is a real physical place with exact dimensions.  This is not a floating, cloudy, vision but rather a very solid, real place.

 Vs 16  The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide.  He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long.

 The city is like a cube, as long as it is wide as it is high.  It is approx. 1500 miles wide, long, and high.  That would stretch from the Atlantic Coast to Colorado and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.   The cube is very reminiscent of the holy of holies in the tabernacle which was squared the same way just in much smaller dimensions.

 Vs 17  He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man’s measurement, which the angel was using.

Vs 18  The wall was made of jasper and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass.

 The wall of the city comes out to be 72 feet thick.  The angel used man’s measurements which is the same as angel measurements:  a yard is a yard, a foot is a foot, etc.  Those massive walls were made of jasper – diamond.  Can you imagine a diamond wall 72 feet thick 1500 miles wide and high?  Diamonds are mined from deep in the earth.  I just wonder if the diamonds that we mine were buried there from the flood?  Were they originally on display before the fall of Adam?  The inside was of pure gold which is so pure it is transparent.  If God uses our most precious elements, gold and diamond to build walls, streets, and such in heaven; can you imagine how beautiful the things that will fill that city?

 Vs 19  The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone.  The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald,

Vs 20  the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eigth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth and the twelfth amethyst.

 The foundations that the city is built on are beautiful beyond description as well.  Reds, blues, greens, yellows, purples and a host of shades of those colors make up the foundations.  These foundations are not buried beneath dirt but exposed for all to the see the glorious display of God’s handiwork.    All the minerals that we hold precious is used to make up the foundation of this splendid city.

 Vs 21  The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl.  The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.

 Each of the twelve gates were made up of a single pearl.  The pearl is the only precious stone that is made from a living flesh.  An irritant that gets into the shell of an oyster turns into a pearl as the oyster begins to coat that irritant and turn it into a smooth round radiant pearl.  Can you imagine the irritation to the Living Flesh that caused these pearls!  Listen to what John Phillips says in his book “Exploring Revelation”:

 “How appropriate!  All other precious gems are metals or stones , but            a pearl is a gem formed within the oyster – the only one formed by around the offending article that has penetrated and hurt it, the oyster builds a pearl.  The pearl, we might say, is the answer of the wicked men who crucified heaven’s beloved and put Him to open shame.  How like God it is to make the gates of the new Jerusalem of pass the gates of glory that access to God’s home is only because of Calvary.  Think of the size of those gates!  Think of the supernatural pearls from which they are made!  What gigantic suffering is symbolized by those gates of pearl!  Throughout the endless ages we shall be reminded by those pearly gates of the immensity of the sufferings of Christ.  Those pearls, hung eternally at the access routes to glory, will remind us forever of One who hung upon a tree His home.”

 As we just discussed the street of the city was of pure gold.  Transparent in pureness and since we will have no unrighteousness in us at all there will be reason to hide anything.  Privacy will not be needed.

 Vs 22  I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

 John notices a few things missing in this city.  For one he notices there is no temple.  The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple.  God will dwell with man completely.  We will worship and serve and live together forever.

 Vs 23  The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.

Vs 24  The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.

Vs 25  On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.

 Another thing missing is the sun and moon.  Light will be given by the Light of the world – Jesus.  All things will be well lit by Him.  He will give us our light and warmth.  We will not be in darkness nor will we be chilled again.  The gates of pearl will never shut because there is no night – the time for wickedness.  The gates of His great city will always be open and welcoming.

 Vs 26  The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.

 All people will bring glory and honor into the city gates.  All glory goes to God, all honor goes to God.  Man will not seek his own glory or honor.  Nothing self-seeking will enter.  It will be pure joy to bring Him all our praise, all of our life and heart, all of our service.

 Vs 27  Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

 The city is safe and secure, it is splendid and majestic, it is pure and holy, it is open to us whose names are the Lamb’s book of life and it is forever and ever.